Council have damaged guttering

charliepink_2

I am an ex-council tennant we bought our house just over 2 yrs ago. I am in a block of 4 houses and my neighbours either side have been having their roofs and guttering done for the decent homes schemes. This started in Oct last yr and we were asked if we didnt mind having scaffolding in our back garden for the neighbours roof to be done. We agreed and it was done in 10 days. In late Oct it was raining really hard and i noticed at the front that my guttering was leaking. It is quite new guttering only a few yrs old and i quickly got onto the council about it. What had happened is that whoever had fitted my neighbours guttering had cut it too short and had pulled ours along to match it up!!!

I was told that someone would be out to look at the damage. Someone came out a week later accused me of doing it and went away. I called again to be told that someone would be out. Still no one has come out i am disgusted. If i had damaged council property i would be taken to court. My father in law has offered to go up and pull the guttering back but i am not sure.

Sorry this is long winded but i dont know what else to do. Any help would be great thanks.

Errata

Escalate your complaint with the council and also involve your local councillor. It may be that the council contracted an 'improvement company' to do the work and in my experience they will do their utmost to deny causing any damage, even damage to a home they're improving !
Push hard, both the council and any contractor will have a contingcy fund or insurance to cover the cost of repair.

andy69_2

Write a letter, letters are always better and keep a copy for yourself

siren13577

Write a letter to the council housing department, find out the name of the housing officer responsible for your area and address for his/her attention, include as much information as possible, name of the surveyor and the people/firm who carried out the work. Just be careful that you didn't sign anything giving your permission as these documents often have a waiver on them, absolving the contractors and the council etc from responsibility. I'm a HA tenant and have to sign these before any work is completed on my home, for decor etc.
Hth and good luck.

Steve_xx

As others have said, write a letter to the council stating the nature of the problem, when it occurred etc. State also that you have telephoned and was promised action which has not been in evidence thus far. Take photo's if you can and enclose them. In your letter you should afford them a peiod of say 14 days from the date of your letter, by which time you will expect to receive their response. Tell them that if they fail to respond within that time slot that you will be left with no alternative but to instruct a contractor to make good the damage and that if you do have to do this that you will be forwarding the contractors bill for the repair to the council.

Keep copies for yourself and either send the letter Recorded Delivery or hand it in yourself at the councils offices. If you hand it in yourself be sure to get a receipt from whoever you hand it to.

heapsy

Get in touch with your local councillor, that what they are there for! It's amazing how quickly the housing dept will react when they get an email from a miffed councillor!